Abstract

Perry Payne argues that the health care system should encourage provision of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for most people in the near future. Payne's essay contains two distinct claims. One claim is that near-universal access to WGS would be beneficial both to individuals and to populations who, without it, could be on the losing end of widening health disparities. The second claim is that the preventive services provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) should be invoked to establish legal entitlements to WGS, without any patient cost sharing. We believe there are strong reasons to reject both of these claims. Indeed, the reasons that count against providing wide access to WGS are the very same reasons that undermine Payne's argument for providing WGS under the preventive services provisions of the ACA.